It's here!

I'm holding a printed copy of Out Of Sight Out of Mind in my hand - and it's gorgeous. The book opens with my heroine, Madison, investigating a dark alley where she may have sensed an interesting presence - interesting to her, because she's a scientist who reads minds. The cover designer, Berni, has perfectly captured the sense of loneliness and menace that I was trying to convey in the opening pages. Of course, Madison does not stay alone for long, but her first encounter with Jay, the hero, is not exactly a conventional romantic meeting ...

A photo can show the look, and the glorious colour, but it doesn't show you that the white writing of the title is embossed, so that there is texture as well as colour. As you might have guessed, I'm rather pleased with it. Thank you Berni!

The book will be available in paperback on 7th March, but before that there is a very special promotion, celebrating the run up to Valentine's day. Drop back on Monday, please, when I can reveal more about it. At the moment, it's a secret.

In honour of book two, I'm planning to change my twitter logo @evonnewareham  to my fabulous new cover. (Wish me luck with that. I'll need it!) and my website is getting an update. I'll let you know when all that goes live. In the meantime, I'm going back to admiring the book. And maybe stroking the cover, if no-one is watching ...

Scary ... in a good way.

There's sometimes a fine line between excited anticipation and fear. 
Think about it - accelerated heart beat, nervous swallowing, shortage of breath ...
A couple of things this week are disturbing my peace - but for good, or bad?
First, I got the email from the lovely Lyn, from Choc-lit, with suggestions for the cover of the next book, Out of Sight, Out of Mind. Waiting for the four sets of artwork to download takes forever - is a minute really that long? Will I like them? Will I hate them? Will I like the one everyone else hates? Will they look anything like my mental picture of the book? What is my mental picture of the book? How on earth do you illustrate a romantic thriller about mind reading anyway? I needn't have worried. Illustrator extraordinaire Berni has produced four designs to fall in love with, each one illustrating something elemental about the book. At the moment, I want them all. Whichever one ends up as the cover, I shall be happy. But having the cover reminds me that the really scary stuff will be coming next. Editing. 

One of the other sort-of-scary things that comes with being an author is talking to people. Lots of people. In groups. Public speaking. I'm off to the Winchester Writers' Festival at the weekend, and as well as listening to other people talk, in a series of lectures and workshops, I'll also be amongst the Winchester 'graduates' who will be mentioned in the Plenary session that kicks off Saturday morning at the conference. I know this, because it's there in black and white in the newsletter that accompanies the programme. My name! I still haven't got used to that yet. There should even be copies of Never Coming Home for sale at the bookstall. I hope I'll have the chance to say a few words at the Plenary. Two of them will be thank you. Winchester is famous for its one-to-one sessions, where quite a number of writers have found agents or publishers. I didn't get my break that way, but success in the many competitions that are part of the conference did huge amounts for my confidence as a writer.


That's another sort-of-scary thing - there will be many people attending that festival who will be scanning the lists of competition finalists when they go up in the foyer of The Stripe at lunch time on Saturday. The feeling, when you see your pen name there, is amazing. Walking-on-air-all-the-afternoon amazing. And then there is the awards ceremony, waiting for the winners to be called - accelerated heart beat, nervous swallowing, shortage of breath ... 

At last - the Book

There's only one post possible today. On Monday my author copies of Never Coming Home arrived. I didn't kiss the nice man from UPS who brought them. He will probably be relieved about that. Then I tore open the box and sat on the stairs and cried, just like the old Rod Stewart song. So there was only one place to photograph the books. The books. Real books. With my name on.

I can't claim credit for the way they look - a big thanks goes to Berni, the designer, Helen for the back cover copy and to author Meg Gardiner for giving me a lovely cover quote.

Yesterday I had coffee with Lorraine and Vanessa, my fellow members of the tiny RNA Cardiff Chapter. And they were the first people, after my mum, to hold the baby and coo over it. They said all the right things, so thanks to them too.

It will be available to the public in March. Although you can pre-order a copy now. :)

PS - Update on the resolutions - I can't speak for Devlin and Kaz, but my resolution about having fun is coming along nicely. Funnily enough, I seem to have had a lot of offers to help with that one!

I'm not doing too badly on the social media front. I'm twittering, a bit erratically - another thanks is due to all the people who have helped and welcomed me there. My Facebook pages are still 'work in progress'. Translation - 'A bit of a mess'. I will get there, honest, and to all the friends requests waiting. Everyone needs friends.